Numerous different proposals and constructions of couplings and connectors have been put forward from time to time and have been made available in the marketplace.
As regards garden hoses, one range of couplings and connectors that has become widely available and has in reality created an industry standard is the rather popular one that originated with the German company GARDENA AG and which is sold under their registered trade mark GARDENA®. Those hose couplings have a first component having a male tubular spigot encircled by an O-ring and wherein the spigot is introduced axially into a socket in a second component. The spigot has a shoulder behind which three symmetrically arranged releasable pawls associated with the socket engage to hold the spigot within the socket.
Release of the pawls is achieved by sliding an external spring biased skirt axially to release the pawls so that they can disengage the spigot and enable withdrawal of the spigot from the socket. The coupling thus has multiple components that need to be assembled. Also, the operation of the pawls is not always reliable and it is not always easy to cause the pawls to engage behind the shoulder when connecting such a coupling. Children or the elderly may battle with the strength that is sometimes required to make a proper connection. The second component is not adequately robust in that it does tend to break relatively easily and it does not cope with sand and grit very well.
The hose connector used in relation to such couplings has a first component that has a connector spigot with an undulating outer surface and a circular array of a multitude of gripper fingers spaced radially outwards from the spigot and that are urged towards the spigot in unison by a second component in the form of a union nut that has an internal screw thread cooperating with an external screw thread on the first component and a tapered surface that urges the gripper fingers inwards to clamp the hose firmly onto the spigot. The arrangement works well but does have some disadvantages in that the screw threads have given problems and can slip and also the gripper fingers can become loose and tend to be directed to the inside of a hose rather than the outside during installation of the hose.
Numerous other couplings and connectors have been proposed and used. For the most part the couplings are rather complex and the hose connectors for the most part employ a connector spigot extending into the hose that is firmly clamped onto the outside of the connector spigot by means of one form of clamp or another that may be releasable or permanent. Permanent connectors are generally made by crimping a sleeve or wires onto the outside of the hose whilst releasable connectors typically employ a screw operated clamp that encircles the hose.
Applicant is aware of various proposals that have been made to employ the characteristics of a ball valve in a coupling although none appear to have been made available commercially. Each of US20020062872, US20040239111, U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,841, EP406203 and GB1503647 describes the use of a ball in the form of a continuous sphere other than at positions where a single flow passage passes through the ball so that the only deviations of the outer surface of the ball are where the flow passage joins with the otherwise continuous spherical surface.
In all these instances the ball constitutes an additional component and the nature of the ball requires the part of the coupling that houses the ball to be made in at least two parts that need to be connected together. Further components may be needed to either enclose the ball to maintain it permanently captive or in some other way to make the coupling work properly.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,681,027 on the other hand describes a permanently installed right circular cylindrical element that is rotatable about an axis at right angles to the axis of the coupling in place of the spherical ball element. Nevertheless, the cylindrical element, which is an additional component, needs to be installed from a side of a body of the relevant component separately from any component of the coupling itself.
The designs of the various couplings and the number of components necessary to construct a coupling of any of these types, as far as applicant is concerned, result in the cost of the couplings becoming prohibitive for wide low cost applications such as to garden hose fittings or in other large-scale low cost applications. Cost is always an extremely important factor in the mass production and commercialisation of any product of this nature. Also, the designs of these couplings do not lend themselves to use under rugged conditions such as in a garden.
Applicant believes that there is room for improvement both in relation to the coupling as well as in relation to a hose connector that may in some instances be used together with such a coupling.